This article wants me to get my you-no-what to Mars: this is a paraphrase from the movie Total Recall by the way.

Anyway, human endeavors toward outer space should never wend; we should never be inward-looking and should always try to learn from the outside world. Most of them are still full of miracles that we need to one day able to explain scientifically in order to expand our knowledge and solve our own issues.

Thank you for the excellent article! Complementing NASA's Journey to Mars is the Moon Village, a comparably challenging international space initiative taking shape with leadership from ESA. Moon Village anticipates many partners each participating as much as their capabilities and budget resources allow initially robotic building towards a manned initial outpost for up to 10 near the South pole or in the farside region. Recent studies point to significant advatages to human spaceflight to Mars through the use of lunar resources particularly water that has been discovered in craters near the pole that are in permanent shadow. Given that lunar water can be extracted for use as fuel, radiation shielding and for life support much more capable spacecraft may become possible for missions to Mars. In fact, an argument can be made that Moon Village may be essential to the full success of the Journey to Mars. At the same time spacecraft being outfitted for long duraction missions to Mars create the start of a market for lunar resources helping to bootstrap industrial operations on the Moon. Additionally, a lunar power and communications utility that employs power generating facilities in space can lower costs of individual exploration missions and enable continuous operation on the lunar surface even during the two week long lunar night. This could not only yield huge savings for lunar exploration but also pilot space-based power for use on Earth. Envison a solar power array in orbit around the Earth that could beam power to meet emergency needs resulting from a natural disaster? In the very long term space-based solar power could be competitive with any terrestrial source with the critical advantage of zero carbon footprint. The International Lunar Decade initiative sees the combination of NASA's Journey to Mars and the Moon Village leading to a self-sustaining space economy with the ILD providing a coordinating framework for activities through 2030. By 2030 the capacity for industrial development of the Moon and near Earth asteroids would become possible through this scenario. Then investment will come increasingly from private sources while NASA and other space agencies continue to push further into the Solar System.

The entire "Man in Space" program has been a waste of money and men. 60 have died in these programs world-wide. And for what? "To send man where no men have gone before" because it was stupid! If we had put all that money into oceanography we would be in abundance instead of at the brink of bankruptcy.

Our planet today is right up to its nose with problems. We must combat and eliminate population explosion, accompanying pollution on land, air and oceans , hunger, disease, countries itching for conflicts, wars, religious fanaticism,etc. Development towards a reasonable degree for all is needed. We need capital investment education etc. Development on Mars can wait for some time.

I am sorry to be a party pooper - but putting people onto planets is a relic of a long past age. We have been there with machines and to be frank, there is clearly nothing there but rocks and dust. The real 'NASA' of today is actually companies like Google, Facebo0k and Telsa with their moonshot efforrts to bring usable and wanted technology to those who need it. Sorry Ellen, but your project is taxpayer funded ego trip.

May not be...simply because, once we hit the outer space, our friendly aliens can interface with us...That is an idea that is same as when humans go from one country to the other like China....Just a thought...

JUST AN IDEA
First, we need to come up with a better transportation technology such as heavy duty electro-magnetic system that develops 50K to 100K Tesla system. Until then, it is a wasted activity. And by the way, we can make such devices...as UFOs use them too...only NASA needs to think better.

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A look back at one of the darker episodes of the 1930s New Deal suggests that we should all be worried about US President Donald Trump’s narrow-minded approach to domestic policymaking. With his relentless pursuit of short-term political gain, Trump may be laying the groundwork for disruptions on a global scale.

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